Magnus Carlsen, 15, Norwegian Chess Champion

9/21/2006 – Two months ago two players tied for first at the 2006 Norwegian Championship: Magnus Carlson, 15-year-old chess prodigy, and his former teacher Simen Agdestein, 39, seven times national champion. From September 19–21 there was a playoff. The two standard games ended in draws, then Carlsen won both rapid chess games to take the title.

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In July we reported on the Norwegian Championship, a 22-player 9-round Swiss
tournament that was held from July 8th to 15th, 2006, in the city of Moss,
just south of the capical of Oslo. The reigning champion GM Simen Agdestein
faced a stiff challenge from his student and coaching partner GM Magnus Carlsen.
At the end of the event the two top seeds ended equal first, a full point ahead
of the field. Here are the final standings:

#

Player

Elo

Pts

Tieb.

Perf

1

Magnus Carlsen

2675

7,0

39,5

2668 ( -6)

2

Simen Agdestein

2594

7,0

38,0

2641 (+12)

3

Berge Østenstad

2480

6,0

38,5

2575 (+21)

4

Bjarke Sahl

2364

5,5

38,0

2490 (+27)

5

Leif E Johannessen

2555

5,5

37,5

2487 (-12)

6

Kjetil A. Lie

2523

5,5

37,0

2480 (-18)

7

Rune Djurhuus

2462

5,0

39,5

2473 ( +1)

8

Torstein Bae

2284

5,0

39,0

2468 (+37)

9

Geir S. Tallaksen

2356

5,0

38,5

2483 (+26)

The rules required that in case of a tie at the top a playoff would be staged
two months later, and this was done on September 19–21, with two regular
games being played on Sept. 19 and 20, and then two rapid chess tiebreak games
on September 21.

The venue of the Norwegian Championship playoff

The first game ended in a draw. In the second Agdestein had white and won
a piece, but his opponent was able to launch a vicious counter-attack which,
in the time trouble phase, could have well brought victory. The game ended
after 47 moves in a just draw. The time control for these games was 40 moves
in 120 min, 20 in 60 and then 30 minutes to finish the game.

Former pupil vs former mentor: Magnus Carlsen playing Simen Agdestein

The situation was reminiscent of last year's playoff, where the more experienced
Agdestein had defeated Carlsen to take the title. But now, at the ripe age
of 15, the boy wonder was in no mood to trifle. He won the first rapid chess
tiebreak game with the black pieces, after a slightly dubious English Four
Knights Opening by Agdestein. In the second, a Ruy Lopez Deferred Seinitz,
Carlsen essentially tied it up on move eight.

Norwegian Champion at fifteen – Norway now has the youngest
champion in the history of the country. The new champion is 15-year-old Simen
Agdestein. Agdestein and IM Bjorn Tiller shared first place in the Norwegian
championship last Summer. At the end of December they played a title match
of four games. Agdestein won by 3-1 (+2=2).

"So even the score of the playoff match was the same," Sven writes.
"History repeats itself..."

See also

12/30/2017 – The "King Salman World Blitz & Rapid Championships 2017" in Riyadh from Decemer 26th to 30th. At the half way point of the Blitz Championship, the defending champ Sergey Karjakin leads with 9 / 11. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave is a half point back followed by Peter Svidler and a trio of Chinese: Wang, Ding and Yu on 8 / 11. In the Women's Pia Cramling has a full point lead with 9½ / 11. Watch live with Rounds 11 to 22 from 12:00 Noon CET (6:00 AM EST) on Saturday with commentary by E. Miroshnichenko & WGM K. Tsatsalashvili.

See also

12/6/2017 – Imagine this: you tell a computer system how the pieces move — nothing more. Then you tell it to learn to play the game. And a day later — yes, just 24 hours — it has figured it out to the level that beats the strongest programs in the world convincingly! DeepMind, the company that recently created the strongest Go program in the world, turned its attention to chess, and came up with this spectacular result.

Video

The Exchange Variation (1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 cxd5 4.Bd3) is a simple and easy to learn answer to the Caro-Kann. By clarifying the central tension White gives himself a clear plan of attack using the half open e-file and the e5 square. This is far from easy for Black to meet as Bobby Fischer, Jan Timman, Walter Browne and other leading Grandmasters have demonstrated in their games. Black too has his resources but he needs to know what he's doing. On this DVD you will find a clear explanation of the strategy for both sides as well as answers to popular treatments such as 4...Nc6 5.c3 Qc7. Whilst the main focus is on the White side of this opening you will also find ways for Black to defend.